Absurdities impossible to invent.: A note on Tertullian's alleged irrationalism
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<p>The present article first traces the history of misattribution that has connected Tertullian with the idea of a credo quia absurdum. Peter Harrison's recent reconstruction of this modern misattribution is contrasted with medieval critiques that focused on Tertullian s materialism, but never presented him as the arch-irrationalist. Once that image has been discarded, the readings of De came Christi by Mofatt (1916) and Sider (1980) gain in plausibility. Their defense of an argument from improbability is supplemented with similar arguments in Minucius Felix and St. Augustine.</p>
The present article first traces the history of misattribution that has connected Tertullian with the idea of a credo quia absurdum. Peter Harrison's recent reconstruction of this modern misattribution is contrasted with medieval critiques that focused on Tertullian s materialism, but never presented him as the arch-irrationalist. Once that image has been discarded, the readings of De came Christi by Mofatt (1916) and Sider (1980) gain in plausibility. Their defense of an argument from improbability is supplemented with similar arguments in Minucius Felix and St. Augustine.
The present article first traces the history of misattribution that has connected Tertullian with the idea of a credo quia absurdum. Peter Harrison's recent reconstruction of this modern misattribution is contrasted with medieval critiques that focused on Tertullian s materialism, but never presented him as the arch-irrationalist. Once that image has been discarded, the readings of De came Christi by Mofatt (1916) and Sider (1980) gain in plausibility. Their defense of an argument from improbability is supplemented with similar arguments in Minucius Felix and St. Augustine.
Keywords
Augustine, CS. Lewis, Irrationalism, Minucius Felix, Tertullian, Augustine, CS. Lewis, Irrationalism, Minucius Felix, Tertullian